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Scott Reinardy has found
that newspaper journalists often substitute ESPN “sports
speak” for traditional reporting.
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Booya!
Study Shows
Sports Writers Are Taking Cues from Broadcast Counterparts
By Christine Feeley
ESPN personality Chris Berman coined the phrase,
“Back-back-back-back, gone!” Stuart Scott defined
“Boo-yah!” and Dick Vitale proclaimed, “It’s
awesome, baby!” Now, ESPN sports jargon is making the jump
to print media, according to a new University of Missouri-Columbia
study.
Scott Reinardy, a doctoral candidate in the
MU School of Journalism,
and Earnest Perry, an associate professor of journalism at MU,
found that newspaper sports journalists, specifically writers
and sports desk personnel, such as copy editors and page designers,
believe creative sports journalism often is substituted for fact-based
sports reporting. The study shows that print sports journalists
often substitute ESPN “sports speak” for traditional
reporting, though all journalists in the study, regardless of
staff responsibilities, doubt that readers prefer this form of
journalism.
“All sports journalists in this study
agreed that readers do not necessarily enjoy sports jargon in
their stories and that saturation of sports in the American culture
has had a negative effect on sports writing,” Reinardy said.
“Oftentimes what is being passed off as witty jargon can
be cleaned at the copy desk before reaching publication. However,
factual holes in stories that are being covered up by ESPN-type
lingo cannot be fixed.”
Reinardy and Perry distributed surveys to
249 sports journalists, and responses indicated that ESPN jargon
and entertainment-based writing do play a significant role in
newspaper sports journalism. The study also found that sports
writers and sports desk personnel believe more strongly than sports
editors that this trend is changing the tone of sports reporting.
Reinardy said the shift from traditional to
entertainment-based sports writing can be attributed to identification
theory, a form of imitation where a person attempts to mimic some
quality of a model. In this case, sports reporters in print media
who aspire to become television and radio personalities conform
to the behavior, speech and journalistic style of celebrity sports
journalists on ESPN.
“As previous studies have demonstrated,
newspaper readers are drawn to the sports section because of its
entertainment value and ‘offbeat’ and humorous sports
commentary,” Reinardy said. “It can be argued that
no media outlet provides more entertainment and offbeat commentary
than SportsCenter. Sports writers who grew up watching ESPN would
be attracted to that style of sports presentation.”
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Last Update:
November 15, 2007
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